LITTLE ROCK—Hillary Rodham Clinton returned Friday to her husband’s home state and asked her supporters to help make Arkansas winnable for former rival Barack Obama.

Clinton spoke to an estimated crowd of about 3,000 people gathered in front of the state Capitol for a rally on behalf of Obama’s presidential campaign. Clinton, who won 70 percent of the state’s vote in the Democratic primary in February, said she wants her backers in the state to work just as hard for Obama.

“I’m here today to ask you, all of you who worked for me, all of you who voted for me, to do the same for Barack Obama and Joe Biden,” Clinton said.

The New York senator was the overwhelming choice of Democrats in Arkansas’ primary and received the backing of the state’s top Democrats during her battle with Obama for the nomination. Republicans are confident that John McCain has a lock on the state, and Obama hasn’t campaigned in Arkansas during the primary or general election season.

Nevertheless, Clinton said she believed that a state that has gone Republican in the past two elections can go Democratic next month.

“I believe that Arkansas is winnable. I believe that, if we do our job and get our message out, we can convince enough people between now and Nov. 4,” Clinton said.

Clinton, who served as the state’s first lady for 12 years, used the backdrop of the state Capitol for a new spin on a line she’s used comparing Bill Clinton’s 1992 race for the White House to this year’s presidential campaign.

“It took a Democrat who used to serve in this Capitol to clean up after the first Bush and it’s going to take a Democrat to clean up after this Bush,” Clinton said.

Clinton praised her former rival as the best choice to lead the nation as it faces an economic crisis and war.

“I think it is safe to say we have not seen more troubles at one time since World War Two,” she said. “Probably no president will inherit more challenges that President Obama will, since Harry Truman had to take over from Franklin Roosevelt.”

The rally was held at same spot where Obama last visited the state two years ago to stump for Mike Beebe’s gubernatorial campaign. Beebe, who was elected in 2006, went on to endorse Clinton’s campaign but backed Obama after Clinton dropped out of the race.

Clinton was joined at the rally by Beebe and other top Democrats in the state, including Wesley Clark, the retired Army general who ran unsuccessfully for the party’s Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.

Beebe and other Democratic leaders have said Obama will have a tough time winning Arkansas if he continues to ignore the state. McCain, meanwhile, has campaigned in Little Rock and Rogers since clinching the party’s nomination.

Democratic leaders at the rally encouraged party members to work hard to overcome Obama’s apparent disadvantage in the state.